Let the walls come down
by Chibi Haku
Summary: (genderswitch!Naruto)(Possible SasuNaru OR KyuuNaru) "I dunno." Nari commented offhandedly. "Kyuubi's not that bad really, He's kinda like the homicidal big brother I never had." Sasuke fixed her with a look. "...Right. Bad example."
1. Can you hear the cries

"WHAT! So just because you've suddenly noticed I have breasts you're not going to let me fight?" A high pitched voice cries out over the trees in the grey light of predawn.

"I just don't want you to get hurt! Though I don't see why I bother you bitch!" a male call answers it, deep and certain.

The voices have originated from near the middle of trees almost too tall to feel real. The branches which the two participants of a fierce debate are standing on are thick. Too thick to place arms around and wide enough to allow balance to be maintained easily. A tree ahead, a girl with aqua eyes, pale skin and cotton-candy pink hair watches on with a disdainful look on what appears to be an exceedingly common occurrence.

The female actually participating in the argument was becoming more and more vocal as time wore on, her voice raising to a nasty shriek that could damage both ears and her own vocal cords if maintained for a length of time.

"BITCH is I?" The cacophonous screech echoes, "If that's what you think, then don't bother looking out for me because I can look after myself just fine!" Her words are directed at a sooty haired boy, whose name, for the benefit of the readers, is Uchiha Sasuke.

"Oh yeah?" Sasuke's voice is silky malevolence, his own version of the female's ear-splitting cry. "I doubt you could, and STOP PMSing. I was trying to protect you!" The argument grows a degree fiercer, and the female watching reflects briefly that the more enraged they became, the more coherent the female adolescent. The male grew more vocal and significantly more anal.

Once again, for the benefit of the reader (And following the traditional Japanese custom of family name, given name – due to the heritage of our characters), the female watching was Haruno Sakura, not a particularly stunning girl, but pleasant to look at. She had a rather large forehead and was lacking somewhat in the areas of bust and waist as a form hugging dark pink dress over bike pants of a slightly deeper shade of fuchsia revealed. Currently, she is sighing at her companions and wondering if it will rain today.

(The author takes this brief opportunity to pause the action and explain the circumstances leading up to the current debate.)

The scene is late at night in a darkened forest glade. Four people are setting up bedrolls and two are bickering vehemently. Though hard to see in the dark, the one on the right has blue eyes that sparkle with something akin to ferocity and her back is turned to a softly crackling fire, casting her face in shadow. She has long blonde hair that falls in a messy heap down her back and it has an ethereal red glow to it that makes it look almost menacing. She is busy unfolding and laying out her bedroll, and her fingers are slender with blunt ends and nails chewed down to the quicks.

Her clothing is in disarray, covered in dirt and grime. It is bright orange with royal blue accents and screams bad taste. Overly baggy, it hides her female form from the unsuspecting viewer and one must assume that this is done deliberately. She turns away from her discordant fellow and faces the flickering flames.

It is now that her features are shown into sharp relief. Her age appears at most eighteen, at least twelve depending upon the flickering of her moods. Her eyebrows are un-waxed and drawn together by a disgruntled temperament. Her nose is small but not dainty, set squarely below her eyes and above full lips. Some strands of luminescent hair have fallen underneath a worn blue band around her forehead and have landed either side of the noses' bridge. The rest of the frontal tangle of hair sweeps up and over the faded blue cloth and wraps her round face's edges and pulls them in. It is uncertain if this action was as deliberate as the clothing, for the female in this situation appears to be trying to hide her gender as much as possible.

Most unusual, however, is a faint set of three scars running down both cheeks which are pale and waxy in the moonlight. Such are they that they could almost be called whiskers.

The other member of this altercation is male and stands a head taller than our aforementioned blonde. He is, in actual fact, not the one currently arguing with our female in the paused catfight but a new adversary. He has silver hair that flies outwards at bold angles, and while a black mask and another of the faded pieces of cloth covers the majority of his face one dopey eyes is visible and droops lazily. He is wearing a uniform of sorts, a khaki green jacket covered in pockets and purple pants that appear almost crafted to his legs. It is uncertain as to what they are disputing. Perhaps the fire, perhaps the food, perhaps something that shall remain known only to them and them alone.

The battle previously referenced comes next as our unsuspecting quartet is 'jumped' by three foul smelling men. All are dressed rather poorly and their faces cannot be seen due to large and bulky masks that must obscure vision. Immediately the disagreement is disbanded and our disruptive female has to dodge a volley of kunai that spin gracelessly past her and embed themselves in a tree three feet from her with a dull 'thunk.' Instead of fear, her eyes are encompassed with anger and a will to fight and prove herself. She leaps forward, no poise to her actions and one can honestly mistake her for the male she apparently wishes to be.

Sasuke, who is present in this scene as the third member (Sakura is the fourth) also leaps forward and also appears to have been born the wrong gender. His movements have the fluidity of liquid steel and for a moment, the author pauses to compare him to a panther, for he contains the same battle poise and dangerous beauty. His hands spin and whirl in intricate designs as the assailants rush forward.

He plans to finish it quickly and smirks.

To his left, the unnamed female speeds past him and his eyes glitter. "Katon!" he cries almost gleefully with eyes clouded over with the thrill of battle. "Goyakku No Jutsu!" The nonsensical words have meaning and he brings one hand to his lips, thumb and forefinger creating a small 'o' shape. Amazingly, a long peal of fire races out of his mouth at his expelling of breath to engulf the quickly approaching assassins. The heat radiates off the blast in waves and leaves on the nearby trees crinkle as the moisture within them evaporates.

Not surprisingly, the foul smelling men fall back. And thus is when out main female decides to make her move. She flies forward full of obvious malicious intent, most likely because these people had interrupted her argument. She is stopped, however, by an outstretched hand and Sasuke leaps forward, finishing off the men quickly, thus leading to the current quarrel-filled situation.

(And thus the Author, finished with the back-story allows the current scene to play once again)

"I could have _taken _them!" The blonde demands of the black haired Uchiha. Her eyes glitter with the same anger and battle lust as before with the men, such a strange emotion to be directed at a team mate.

"I'm sure you could have, Dumbass, but you would have made it a flashy show that would have gotten us nowhere quickly." Sasuke replies quickly in that dangerous malevolent tone. "Honestly Nari, you have no sense of secrecy at all."

'Nari' growls at him menacingly. "Uzumakis don't need to be quiet, Pretty Boy." Coming from any other female, the insult may have been a compliment to the Uchiha. However, Uzumaki Nari, our boisterous female didn't consider herself such and tried to act as distinctly male as possible, thus turning the image of flattery around into a deadly viper's bite.

"Moron of Morons." Sasuke fires back, not about to be outdone in this verbal war.

"Idiot."

"Bit sweet coming from you, Nari. Bitch."

"Eyeball."

The silver haired man clears his throat with an air of long suffering patience. "As amusing as it is to watch you two bicker, we are going to be late if we don't move." He tells them sternly, only his eyes showing a twinkling of mirth, not so out of place in the situation

Sakura and Nari immediately turn on the taller one of their party, their eyes flashing dangerously, hands equally raised in frustrated disbelief. "You're always late anyway!" Their shout rolls in cacophonous unison around the glade, startling every bird for a mile into a brief silence. The silver haired man (Hatake Kakashi, the Author feels the need to reveal) flinches ever so slightly at their cry, though if one wasn't watching for it, they might have thought that their eyes played tricks. He sighs, voice still lined with that same amusement, though this time it is slightly less fake.

"They're only 15 and already they're getting too strong for me." He whispers to himself dryly, low enough for the others not to hear him. He shudders readily at the frightening concept. "Let's continue on." The announcement is directed at his three grasshoppers. "We need that scroll back at the village by tomorrow evening."

* * *

The original action now over, the trek through overly tall trees and over large gorges (and sweeping mountainsides) is allowed to continue; with the persons previously mentioned leaping impossibly wide gaps from branch to branch with a frightening sense of ease. The Uchiha and the Uzumaki were still arguing with one another, but it was a quiet argument now, through whispers and body language, Sakura and Kakashi only stepping in when it looked like it would escalate beyond that. They had learnt long ago that it was impossible to get the blonde and brunette to stop a fight once they'd started, but it was easy to keep it to a certain level that the situation would dictate.

While both the male and the female had dangerously short fuses, they did have sense to match the situation.

Two large gates swam into view of the combatants and their companions. The insult war which had started had passed through most of the usual areas by this point, appearance, battle skill, intelligence, sexual preference, and now was really starting to get dirty. Both Sakura and Kakashi were positive a fight would break out underneath the large gates of their home village and prayed for only a little property damage. They needn't have bothered.

"BITCH OF A FOX!" Sasuke yells voraciously, overstepping the mark in one utterance. The effect of this outlandish cry is Nari ceasing forward movement quite suddenly, the other three whizzing past her at unthinkable speeds. A quick turn of their heads revealed her eyes to be cold and glazed over, the beginnings of tears in their depths. Before the other three can even react to her sudden cessation of momentum, she is gone, speeding away in a direction unknown.

Coming to a sudden stop, all three glance at the place where the boisterous blonde once was. "What was that all about?" Sakura feels the need to voice, confusion lacing her tones. The girl is plainly stupefied by the sudden change of demeanour of the usually burly and stocky other. She could have sworn that Nari was crying, but knowing the girl that was impossible. Nari never cried, ever.

Kakashi and Sasuke exchange knowing looks. "You went too far" The silver haired man's sleepy eye says, and Sasuke's replies unhappily with, "I know." Without a word of utterance between the remaining three members, Sasuke had disappeared as well, following the strong girl to her chosen destination.

Nari's eyes are closed as she rests with one leg swung over a low hanging tree limb, a hand idly tracing patterns in the water of the lake below her perch. _"You bitch of a fox!"_ The cry rings through her ears even now, a cry of the one person who had never judged her, even after gaining the knowledge of what she was, proceeded to do just that. Even though it was the heat of the moment, the words had still been spoken, there had still been that yell, the syllables had still been formed.

* * *

Crickets chirping in the darkening air around the hovel-like lake alert her to the late hour but she can't see the point in moving. A fish jumps with an echoing splash, and resonating ripples lap up against the muddy embankment that makes the shore of the pond-like water catchment. Somewhere an owl hoots in the deep blackness. To complete the ominous scene, soft, familiar breathing echoes through her mind and Nari opens metaphysical eyes to the vast cave-like room her mind had created to house a demon.

Her Demon.

The Fox had always been in her mind since before she could remember. Once, her belief was it was a figment of her imagination, something her lonely mind had created to replace her parents. But however, behind the golden bars of an elegantly designed cave, was not an imaginary father, but a true demon, the Kyuubi, or Fox. His eyes were closed at the moment, or so she assumed for she could not see a red glow to indicate otherwise. Nari was no fool to consider that the beast was sleeping. One paw, complete with claws larger than she was rests up near the door of the cage, and briefly Nari contemplated how such a great beast could maintain such a large space of her mind without an adverse affect. Or maybe there already was one and she just hadn't noticed

"_Kittling."_ The Fox comments by way of greeting, after taking a long gushing snort and picking up her scent. He didn't bother to raise his head, or open his eyes, he didn't need to. Nari would often wonder in the depths of night, whether the greeting was recognition of her scent or otherwise, for even if her scent was no different from that of other humans as she sometimes assumed, he would always know that she was the one visiting. After all, how many other people could get into her mind? Maybe Sasuke, but that was not the point and it also was not in such a literal sense. She growls unconsciously as that thought passed once more through her head. One of the Fox's barely visible eye ridges rose in the gloom, but still his eyes did not open. _"Is your mate giving you troubles again?"_ He asks sneakily, a definite chuckle to his deep reverberating voice.

"He's not my mate, you overgrown rat." Nari shoots back in an angry instant, shuddering at the thought of her and that... that... that... bastard being an 'item'. The paw nearest to her flicks in warning of retribution should she dare to insult its owner again. "And if he _is _giving me trouble, it's all your fault." She bites out at the fox, feeling the need to vent and seeing him as an easy way out. The Fox's ear flicks in suppressed agitation. "You've always been the source of problems for me."

Its eyes snap open in the gloom, two glowing red spheres surrounded by rings of coal so dark that pitch black was a light grey in comparison. Slitted eyes, smouldering with rage stare at her through the bars of the overlarge cage as the Fox rises to his four paws, dusty red fur catching the light from some unknown light source. Involuntarily, Nari steps back in primal fear, her footsteps making dull clicks on the metallic surface of her mind. The Fox towered over her, with one paw being tall enough to loom over her head. _"Do not suggest, Kittling, that his bias is solely because of me. I could easily kill you if it weren't for this godforsaken cage. You are not so strong as to best me."_

It was a poorly veiled threat, and Nari knew so. "I'm sorry." She said immediately, the strength radiating off the demon frightening her usually calm façade.

Three seconds rang silent before either spoke. "Why do you call me Kittling?" Nari asks after a moment of dark contemplation. For as long as she could remember, the Fox had insisted upon calling her that, and had ignored all protests that she presented.

"_Because, that is what you are."_ He calmly replies, previous anger hidden or forgotten in light of the new topic. _"Would you prefer Cub? Infant?" _He questions condescendingly and opened his mouth in the equivalent of a fang-filled smile.The tone was that of high amusement, and Nari allowed herself a moment to blush, swallowing around a sudden new thrill of terror at the expression. Nothing would ever get her used to that tooth-filled look of the insane animal.

"Never question a fox demon." She forcefully reminds herself, wrenching her eyes away from those startlingly red orbs. "If you want to keep your sanity in tact."

* * *

_.

* * *

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_A/n: I'm not sure as to whether I should continue this or not. You'd be surprised at how hard it is to write in that style. I had to keep going back and re-reading this as I was typing it to make sure I remained in present tense._

_Highly descriptive shiznit is hard too._

_Now, I realise the OMG NARUTOISACHICK! Plotline has probably been done to death. That's why I'm leaving this one open for suggestions to improvement. At the moment, most of the ideas I've come up with to continue this have been pretty much the standard cliché plotlines for the Naruto-verse. At the moment I'm kinda leaning to a 'Naruto becomes a new Kyuubi' type cliché._

_Oh, and just so you all know (Or in case you haven't worked it out): **I do not like to use 'fangirl' Japanese. **However, when there are certain situations I will use it. One is the case of the Surname Given Name dilemma I am faced with in Naruto. Some names just don't make sense when transferred over from styles. Rock Lee is a perfect example of this. (Lee Rock sounds like a type of candy or something) Therefore, I will stick to Japanese convention with the NAMES. Everything else, especially the usual insults will be 'translated.' (That is, the good ol' ENGLISH equivalents will be used.) _

_Kyuubi remains Kyuubi, because as far as I'm concerned, until either anime or Manga gives teh fuzzy, big, demon, foxy, cute... –cough- err... The Demon Fox a name, he is Kyuubi._

_...And because I thought it was amusing: The spell check wants me to change Hatake to Hotcake._

_Feed a hungry Authoress? –large, soulful puppy-dog eyes-_


	2. The forest is raining

Nari loves the rain.

She loves the way it wraps through the forest and splashes down in great hurdling droplets that reach out and dance with her like the sky is crying and melancholy.

She loves the gentle mist that blankets the world and holds it softly in a dew that gets into everything and drips like beads off her hair and clothes.

She loves the ferocity of thunderstorms, of screaming with the sudden noise and knowing no one can hear her over the top of the drowning, deafening sound and blinding light.

It's raining now and Nari is out in it, fighting off that certain bubble of a giddy laugh that's building up in her throat as a certain type of euphoria usually only associated with sex rolls its way around her chest. She runs in it, leaps over soggy branches that glower at her in her wake, not understanding the primal, animalistic joy of a human-demon in the rain. She is a blitz of motion, an unchecked blur racing over the bright emerald green of the wet world, the birds stop in their grumbling to watch her pass infected by her joy for only a moment. Some will peep a warning at her, others will remain silent in wonder.

She leaps through the forest, knows that it will rain for hours in the underbrush long after the clouds have stopped crying and moved on. It is only fair then, that when she reaches her lake, her world, she leaps into the clear blue water with a grin and not bothering to remove her clothes. They are soaked anyway, and what's a little weight when it comes to swimming in this water?

She hovers underneath the surface, watching with curiosity the patterns the ripples make as the rain strikes the water and disrupts its beauty, its grace, it's everything. The silver-rainbow of a trout flashes to her right and she pays it no heed as her ribcage, a bubble of oxygen brings her back up to the surface and she expels the water up her nose with a mighty sneeze. It's power, is what the rain is. Power.

Yet you know one who has never danced on the surface of a lake in a moonless night while rain pours over your shoulders in an intricate embrace, don't you little fox? You know one who sees only desert, that hungry land surrounded by mountains and crying out for what little cloud that comes. You don't understand it, don't understand that longing, for even though your country is fire, your spirit will always be water and joy and forever clashing with that of the being within you. Your water is the balance to his fire, your yin to his yang, yet you don't believe in balance. Only chaos, only chaos.

* * *

Nari sits on top of the water, looking up into the clouded sky. The rain stopped hours ago and now she is wondering why the clouds look so angry that they can't go where they're needed.

It seems like such a long time ago, but in reality it's only six months that the redhead payed his last visit to the village. He's haunting, strange, and yet beautiful in his own way, with black rings around his eyes that will never go away, not even with the makeup she nicked from Sakura's bag and thickly applied over them. They still peeked through, but he looked more normal.

It wasn't a good look. She wiped the shit off with a frown and he wondered why. He let her touch him, let her hold him, let her do things to him that he wouldn't even have let his sister do, just because she was like him in the end. She brought something out in him, something to the surface that scared her and intoxicated her at the same time. It took her a month to realise that he was acting human, longer to figure out she didn't like that. He wasn't human, neither of them were which was probably why they were drawn together into that mess that ended horribly and left them not talking to each other.

Well, left her not talking to him. He never talked anyway, and she was sure it was a good thing. The whole affair was messy and ended nastily, but they had a few laughs along the way. Like the day after they agreed to the shenanigan she wore his sand headband because he never did and hid hers in her room. She wondered how many people would notice, but none of them did, instead choosing not to comment on the fact that the demon was wearing her headband like that pink girl today, and whilst trying to figure out if it was a statement or a cry for acceptance, they walked off into the distance, not noticing it wasn't a leaf band at all.

She had laughed with him about it after, but secretly it had always hurt.

Nari had had many crushes in her time, and had long since decided that she liked the company of both males and females to an equal degree. Her first crush was Sakura, and she still played the front, even though now the girl annoyed her to the point of screaming and she had held in her interests many others. She always accounted it down to the fact of her longing to be male, too strongheadded for flowers and those allergic to pollen like she was knew exactly the agony she went through while flower arranging.

The forest had never minded her though, and the flowers were kind, if they made her sneeze they apologised immediately. The forest was hers, her family, her friends, all she could ever need besides that rickety old town that stifled her and smothered her with its leers. She would leave if she wouldn't become a missing nin, because Sasuke would never forgive her for that.

"Uzumaki! Uzumaki!" Spiral! Spiral the forest calls, but it's not the voice of the forest that yells her last name and she sits on the water as he springs into view, the moon peeking weakly out of the clouds and shining on his pale skin. Sasuke is not perfect, far from it, with limp black hair and a panicked and almost wild look about him as he frets for her. He sees her sitting on the surface of the lake, soaked and bedraggled and like a stray dog that was kicked by the man who took it in. She turns her back on him with a huff, and that's all the apology he needs for worrying him so because at least she's safe.

Of course she's safe, the forest is hers. Her oldest friend and closest brother, but he can't see that, he's too blind to see the connection that the old fox has called out of her, her need to be in the water when it rains, and to dance on top of it when it's dry, but there's storms about and that lingering scent of ozone in the air. He can't bring himself to apologise, though he knows that that is what it will take to get her to turn around and come back with him, come back with him out of the forest and home.

Look at him, you cheeky blighter, look at the way he pines for you and wants to hold himself ever just that little bit above you. But he doesn't have that training and that certain air you do and he just knows you're better than him. He knows it deep down that he can never compete to you. That's why he doesn't try anymore. That's why he let you convince him that day up there on the lake with the statues and you and him going at it like a pair of old dogs after a three day old bone that smells bad and is the perfect prize.

Shut up! Nari hisses inside her head and turns to face the cold uncaring smirk that is the Sasuke, bastard that he is. He's not going to apologise, she can see that immediately in the eyes and the way he holds himself, the way he expects an apology from her for running off like that.

She's not going to either and they should both give up and forgive the other before the rift grows deeper and they loose trust and power. "Uzumaki."

"Nari." She replies, reminding him of her name. Nari for Naruto, the ramen flower and the powerful whirlpools which wrap around out there somewhere she's never seen and probably never will. Nari for Naruto.

He glares at her. "Uzumaki. Kakashi is worried and wants you back." He'll never admit _he's_ worried, the cold bastard, and she doesn't expect him to.

Nari shakes her head at him. "Give me the rest of the night. I'll be back come morning." He's used to it, her frequent visitations to the forest in the way, and he can't dispute the way she lives, though the tight frown on his lips suggests he might like to.

"You're going home now, Uzumaki, you bitch. And you'll damn well get some sleep tonight."

She stands on the water, aware of the moon in her hair and her clothes dripping. The night chill eats at her but it makes her feel alive and ready to run, but she knows he'll catch her, he always does in the end. It's an eternal game and she knows they'll always play it and he'll always win.

Meekly she follows him while a fox snarls in its den.

* * *

She sits there in the freshly laundered tank top and a baggy pair of sweatpants all too aware of the fact that they're trying to convince her not to go running off to the forest every time it rains, but they don't understand, and it's not their fault but certainly their own doing. She tries not to think about the forest and the perpetual drips raining down through it, startling insects into flight as they attempt to find a shelter.

She wonders why she lets them do this to her.

Sakura presents Nari with a cup of hot cocoa and the blonde takes a tentative sip, the sweet liquid sliding down the back of her throat and pooling in her belly as the heat of it sends fire crackling through her veins. It won't be long before the girl leaves, Nari thinks, Kakashi will follow her and Sasuke will stay a few minutes more on some flimsy excuse before he gives up on her and leaves to his own deserted part of town where he lives with the ghosts of those who were once his tribe.

Then Nari will train. It's all so simple, so routine.

They'll leave and she will train, while they attempt to dream.

* * *

.

* * *

_A/n: HI everyone. Sorry this took so long, and I swear this fic will get better with time, it's just important mumbo-jumbo now that's going to confuse you for a bit. _

_But I swear everything will be explained!_

_Anyways, leave a review for a hungry authoress? -rattles a little tin-_


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